Stillwater senior forward, John Heddle, lines up a shot against White Bear Lake sophomore defenseman, Mason Fiddle, and senior goalie, Chase Gorman, during second period in the Class 2A-Section 4 boys hockey semifinal game at the State Fair Coliseum, Tuesday night, February 25, 2014. (Pioneer Press: John Autey)

Jackson Cates scored in overtime to propel Stillwater to a 2-1 upset victory over White Bear Lake in a Class 2A Section 4 boys hockey semifinal game Tuesday night at the State Fairgrounds Coliseum.

“That was the biggest goal of my life,” said Cates, a sophomore forward with six goals on the season.

Cates scored on a redirected shot from Jon Peterson at 3:10 in overtime.

The third-seeded Ponies (15-10-2) will play Hill-Murray (24-3) for the section championship at 8:30 p.m. Friday at the Coliseum.

“They have some good players,” Stillwater coach Matt Doman said of the Bears, “and we knew we were going to have to take their space away from them, and it was pretty similar to how we are going to have to play on Friday night.”

Brady Anderson tied the score 1-1 for White Bear Lake on the power play at 12:48 of the third period. It was assisted by A.J. Welch and Tom Giller.

Although the Ponies have lost 10 games this season, Doman said they had confidence all year.

“We were more up and down than we would have liked to have been,” he said. “We had quite a few overtime games not quite go our way, but we persevered.”

Jack Manning gave Stillwater a 1-0 lead at 2:40 of the third period. His goal was assisted by Devin Cates and John Heddle.

Through two periods, Stillwater killed three penalties and held an 18-8 lead in shots on goal.

In the scoreless first period, Stillwater held a 11-5 advantage in shots.

White Bear Lake (19-7-1) was seeded second in the section and won the Suburban East Conference. The Bears trounced North St. Paul 10-0 in a quarterfinal game Saturday.

Stillwater, which finished fourth in league play, beat Tartan 6-3 in the quarterfinals.

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